Miracle
by Darkwolf-Untamed
Summary: When a tiny cat pays a visit to Wolfram & Hart, she steals the hearts of everyone there... Except Angel. (Chapter 2 uploaded! The End!) (Inspired by actual events, believe it or not...)
1. Default Chapter

Miracle

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Chapter 1: The Visitor

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Spike yawned quietly, lazily, as he sat on the steps in the main office of Wolfram & Hart. He'd only been corporeal again for a couple of days, and was still getting used to the fact that he now got tired again. Tired, and hungry, actually. But he didn't feel like looking for food. He was people watching.  
  
Well, people and demon watching, but it was basically the same thing.  
  
He would find a place he could sit, out of the way of the main traffic areas, and would just watch and listen to the many workers as they went about their business. It was a habit he'd gotten into in his weeks of being a ghost, and he didn't seem to be dropping it any time soon.  
  
"Tell the Duke that we'll have to just rewrite the-", someone was saying below. Boring. Spike's attention shifted.  
  
"I don't CARE if they're carnivores or insectivores, EVERYONE should like a salad. Especially when we've gone to the trouble of flying in fresh-" Spike laughed softly. You could always tell which lawyers were... newer to the demon aspect of Wolfram & Hart. He'd only been there a few weeks, and already he knew that you DON'T try to get any 'client' to eat something they don't want to eat. He made a face. Especially salad. Yuck. He shifted attention again.  
  
"I'll just have to see to it that everything is in place in time. They can't be expected to-" The bored vampire yawned again. More boring political stuff. What happened to gossip in this place? Talk about how good (or bad) someone's new boyfriend/girlfriend was in bed? Or other semi- normal stuff? Today didn't seem to be a good day for people watching. Or eavesdropping, for that matter.  
  
Sighing, Spike started to get up. Maybe a different vantage point would yield something interesting. And that's when he heard it. It was a quiet sound. Too quiet for human ears to pick up over the din of the office in the afternoon. It was soft. So out of place in the big office building. A gentle sound.  
  
A cat's plaintive meow.  
  
Curious now, Spike got up and started slowly following the sound. He peered under desks, and inside potted plants, but while the sound continued to get louder, he simply couldn't seem to find it's source.  
  
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," he called quietly. "C'mon out..." Suddenly, he saw it. A flash of black tail disappearing down the stairs, toward the labs. "Ah-ha. There you are..." He sped up, but by the time he got to the stairs, the cat was gone. And he couldn't hear it's meow anymore. The vampire's brow furrowed. How had a cat gotten in, anyway? It had to slip in when someone was going in or out the main doors. He shrugged, then started down the stairs. Maybe Fred had seen it.

* * *

Fred was mumbling to herself as she peered through a microscope. Demon blood was always fascinating to examine, simply because it was so... different. Unique. And Fred liked unique things. But something was... blocking her view through the microscope. Since when did demon blood contain large black hairs?  
  
She raised her head and blinked in surprise... because there was a small black and white cat sitting on the table next to the microscope... and a couple of hairs from the tip of it's tail were resting over her slide. THAT is what she'd seen. Fred smiled immediately. She'd always liked cats. Her parents had several on the farm that were SUPPOSED to be mousers, but Fred had basically adopted all of them and turned them into pets. It had been a long time since she'd seen a cat, though.  
  
"Hello, little kitty...", she whispered, gently petting the small cat's head and smiling at it's instant purr. "Where did you come from?" She blinked. "You aren't like... some witch or something, right? Because I don't think you'd let me pet you if you were..." She smiled when the cat simply got up, walked over to her, and nuzzled it's head against her gently. "Okay. Not a witch. But a very sweet kitty..." She looked up as Spike came down the stairs. "Spike! Look at this."  
  
Spike grinned instantly. "You found it. Great... I was followin' that little bugger from upstairs." He came over and started petting the cat's back, but his brow furrowed suddenly. "Bloody hell... The little thing's starvin'... I can feel all of 'er ribs, and her spine..."  
  
"What?", Fred said, an upset tone instantly present in her voice. But Spike was right. When you ran your hand down the cat's back, you could easily feel all her ribs, and every little bump of her spine. "Oh no..." The girl brightened, however, when something occurred to her. "Ooh! That means she doesn't belong to anyone. At least, not anyone who cares about her." She grinned at Spike. "Which means we can keep her!"  
  
Spike laughed quietly, but nodded. "Yeah... Look, try to keep 'er here. She's such a tiny thing, if she runs off, I might not be able to find her again. I'm gonna go get the guys... See who wants to make a run down to PetCo to get the essentials for the little one." He stroked the cat's head and smiled at her purr. "She's a sweet little thing, too..."  
  
Fred giggled and nodded, scooping the cat into her arms and hugging the little thing gently. "She's black and white... Like a tuxedo." A sudden grin. "Ooh! That could be her name! Let's call her 'Tuxedo'."  
  
Spike laughed quietly. "Tux for short. I like it." He petted the cat one last time, then turned and jogged up the stairs. "I'm sure everyone'll love her. I mean, how can someone NOT love a little face like that?", he thought to himself as he went to find the others.

* * *

"No."  
  
"What?" The response was a chorus, as everyone from Fred and Spike, to Gunn, Wesley, Lorne, and even Harmony protested Angel's instant answer to their request to keep Tuxedo.  
  
"I said 'no'," Angel answered tersely. "It's a cat. They shed, and claw, and throw up hairballs all over the place. And I don't want one in my office."  
  
Spike stepped forward from the group of shocked humans... and Harmony... and growled at Angel quietly. "Mate, c'mon... She's just a LITTLE cat. You won't even know she's here... We can take care of her."  
  
Angel shook his head. "I don't want it anywhere near me, Spike. Take it to a shelter or something. But it can't stay here."  
  
Fred looked like she was going to cry, as she cradled Tuxedo to her chest, wrapped in a shirt Spike had offered her to use as a blanket. "But Angel... She's starving. If we give her to a shelter, they might decide it'll be too much trouble to nurse her back to health... And they'll put her to sleep. They'd kill her."  
  
Angel's jaw was set, though, and he shook his head again. "I don't care. It. Is. A. CAT. Get it out of here. Now, Fred."  
  
Wesley cleared his throat quietly. "If I might offer a compromise?" Everyone looked at the former Watcher. Wesley, for his part, stood straight and addressed Angel directly. "We keep the cat on a trial basis, while WE nurse her back to health. Then, if you still don't want to keep her, we take her to a shelter. Then she'd at least have a chance of finding a new home."  
  
Angel sighed quietly, as basically everyone in the room... Tuxedo excluded, of course... gave him their own versions of sad-puppy eyes. He started to shake his head again, then raised an eyebrow when Spike stepped forward.  
  
"Please, mate?", his Childe asked quietly, pleading with basically his entire body. "It won't be for too long... And we'll have saved a life. Isn't that what we're supposed to be doin' here?"  
  
Angel opened his mouth, then gave a long sigh and rubbed his forehead with two fingers. "It's a CAT'S life, though," he muttered under his breath. But Spike could see he'd gotten through. Sometimes it was good to know just how to exploit... that is, to... take advantage... of a Sire's soft spot for his Childe. "Fine," the older vampire muttered after awhile. "But keep it the hell away from me. Got it?"  
  
There was a resounding chorus of 'yes', and Fred even came over, cat in arms, to give Angel a hug. Angel pulled back however, because she was still holding the cat. "I want to be clear, now," Angel said quietly as the group calmed down. "It stays away from me. I don't want to see a single shed hair on anything that belongs to me. I don't want any of my stuff shredded, or puked on, or any of the other myriad of things cats do to belongings. Keep it away from me, or the deal is off."  
  
There was another overwhelming agreement... But no one noticed the way the cat's little eyes almost seemed to burst with love upon getting close to Angel when Fred tried to hug him. Little Tuxedo was in love... And there was no way she wanted to be away from that nice person behind the desk now. She'd just have to find a way.

* * *

Days passed, and it became obvious to the gang that they were going to have quite a few problems keeping their promise to Angel. For one thing, Tuxedo had a tendency to slip away from whoever was watching her. And, inexplicably, she'd almost always wind up in Angel's office, or his suite.  
  
After yelling at his crew and threatening to 'skin the little thing' if she was ever near him again, several times, Angel finally gave up. Nothing he could do could get them to keep the cat away from him. The damned creature seemed to have some kind of attachment to him. Which was stupid, because he hated cats. He'd hated cats ever since he was human. His family had kept barn cats, you see, and one day when Angel was young, he'd had to go into the barn for something. He couldn't even remember what, now. But he remembered the sight of those evil yellow eyes glaring down from the hayloft, just before the living buzzsaw decided to drop down on him and claw him up like a mouse. He still had a scar from where the cat's claws had dug into his scalp, just behind his ear. Buffy had asked him about that injury, once. But Angel, being Angel, had just told her that it came from a demon.  
  
And, in his mind, that was true.  
  
From that day on, he'd believed cats were pure evil. Agents of Satan himself, bent on causing Angel as much pain as possible. Every time in his life that he'd run into a cat, something bad had happened. He'd get hurt, or emotionally wounded... Or nearly destroyed by some magic later on the same night. ALWAYS. Never had a cat heralded good things for him. Ever.  
  
Now, day after day, he found himself having to shove Tuxedo off his chair before sitting in it. He had to feed it in the kitchen of his suite, because the damned thing wouldn't EAT anywhere else, or when anyone else served it's food. AND, he found himself having to wash balls of cat hair down his sink, and brush off his black pants with a lint roller, just to get the white hairs off of them, Angel KNEW something bad was going to happen. And the longer it went without happening, the worse the bad thing was going to be when it finally DID happen. He knew it.  
  
And if the days kept going like this, he was starting to be sure that this little cat was the herald of an Apocalypse.  
  
Angel would wake up, and find the little thing curled up, purring, on the pillow next to his head. Staring at him with those freaky green eyes it had. He'd go to get something to eat, and TRIP on the stupid cat, because it was trying to wind around his legs. He'd put down food for it, the way Fred had showed him after it became obvious that Tux wasn't going to eat food put down by anyone else, and the little demon wound practically claw and bite his hand in it's frenzy to get to the food.  
  
He'd get dressed, and there'd be cat hair all over EVERYTHING in his closet. He'd go to put on shoes, and find a fucking HAIRBALL in one of them. After he put it on, of course. Because when he looked, it was never there. But when he was in a hurry and forgot to look... Of course, that was when he'd find that it had left him a 'gift'.  
  
And hairballs weren't the only thing the creature presented him with. He'll never forget the day he woke up to find a dead mouse in his bed. Put there where there was no WAY he could miss it. That stupid, sadistic feline had put it there on purpose, so he woke up with the tiny corpse only an inch from his nose. It had been a long time since Angel had woken up screaming, but he did it that day. NO ONE wants to wake up with dead rodent eyes staring you in the face. Especially when they're accompanied by those irritating green ones, watching from that intelligent black and white face, another few inches away.  
  
Tuxedo, for her part, didn't seem to realize what a royal pain in the ass she was. The mouse was a gift. Her first kill, given to the nice man who gave her food every day. So she'd brought him something she prized in return. Why, when he'd shouted at her because of it, she'd puffed up with pride. He was no doubt trying to express how wonderful a hunter she was, and how much he loved her gift. She'd watched as he picked up the mouse by the tail and carried it off to the kitchen. No doubt wanting to eat in private. She could understand that. Many predators liked to drag the prey off before they eat it.  
  
And she didn't understand enough about the human world to recognize the sound of a garbage can opening and closing, either.

* * *

Time wore on, day after day. Angel had almost gotten used to the... thing that insisted on monopolizing his bed, or chair, or wherever it was he wanted to be at that moment. The stupid fuzzball seemed to have a supernatural ability to zoom in on wherever he wanted to sit, and get there first.  
  
Tuxedo, for her part, simply figured that if she got where her friend was going, he would touch her. She'd learned that the man she loved so much didn't like to pet her the way all the other people in the big building did. So to get him to at least touch her, she put herself somewhere that the man would have to move her. Because when he moved her, he picked her up. And when he picked her up, his hand would sometimes slide down her back, or over her head. It was the perfect reward, as far as she was concerned.  
  
But she couldn't spend all her time with the man. Sometimes he forgot she was too small to open doors, and closed one before she could get into the room with him. This upset her, of course. But there were other people around who would talk to her and pet her. She just had to go find them. And she'd learned pretty much exactly where all of them liked to stay. However, sometimes they were just too far away from her man. So she'd sacrifice her own desire to be petted in favor of staying somewhere where she could watch for the door to be opened. And the moment it was open, she'd zoom in as quickly as possible, and plant herself on the desk in front of her man. She purred loudly when he raised his voice to her. It was a pure form of affection, and she knew it. And, if he'd really missed her, he'd pick her up and move her.  
  
She'd also noticed that, as the days went on, he had less and less of a tendency to put her down on the cold floor. Which was nice, because the floor was sometimes slippery, and very chilly to her warm little paws. Instead, he'd put her on some other piece of furniture in whatever room they happened to be in. She took this as the highest form of love from the man. He wanted her to stay close to him. Higher up off the floor, like he was when he stood up. And it was nice for another reason... Her man had tripped on her several times while she had been trying to express her love by rubbing on his legs. If he put her up on something, he couldn't trip on her. And she could see him a lot clearer than she could from the floor. That made her happy.  
  
Angel sighed to himself as he, once again, removed the stupid cat from the exact center of his desk and set it on the table that ran behind him. It was too much trouble to bend down and put it on the floor. Especially when he was aching all over from an encounter with a none-too-friendly demon earlier that night. His ribs ached, his back hurt, his neck was twisted, and he'd almost broken a leg in the encounter. So much for the safety of being a CEO.  
  
But he'd filled out the paperwork dealing with the demon's removal, so now all he had to do was get to bed and take some well deserved rest while he healed. He got up, slowly, trying to ignore the pain radiating from seemingly everywhere, and headed for his private elevator. He didn't bother glancing back and down... He could hear that damned animal hopping down from the table to follow him. It followed him EVERYWHERE. Even when he tried to lock it out, the first time someone opened the door, it always got back in. But at the moment, his pain was all he cared about, as he got into the elevator, then sighed and pressed the button to hold the doors open, waiting for the little cat. Fred had admonished him the ONE time he'd left her down in the offices and locked his elevator, because the dumb thing had simply sat in front of the cold elevator doors and meowed all night. It had broken Fred's heart when she'd come in the next morning to find that the cat had almost lost it's voice, and was obviously hungry again...  
  
Then again, when WASN'T it hungry? He fed it two cans of cat food a day, on top of having the dry food Spike had picked out for it sitting in two bowls... one in the kitchen of Angel's suite, and the other in the corner of his office. The two rooms the cat was in almost constantly, because ANGEL was in there almost constantly. If the feline had been human, Angel would've been convinced that he had a stalker. But, then again, if it was human... or just about ANYTHING other than a 'cute kitty', he wouldn't have been stuck babysitting it constantly.  
  
The vampire sighed as he stepped out of his elevator, absently listening to the padding of little paws as the cat followed right behind his feet. He headed into the bathroom, stripping off his shirt as he went, and examined the purple/yellow bruise on his side that marked cracked ribs. Carefully pushing with his hands, gritting his teeth to keep from growling in pain, he managed to get the bones back in place. Then he grabbed one of the many ace bandages he kept in the bathroom for just such occasions, and carefully wrapped up his own ribs.  
  
Tuxedo hopped up on the toilet's closed lid, then up again onto the bathroom counter. She was too small to make the jump directly from the floor to the counter, and she gave a worried mew when she saw her man bandaging himself. She understood enough about people to know he was in pain, and that worried her. She sat down, but tried to reach out with a paw to touch the bandage, and purred when her man started talking to her.  
  
"Don't you dare," Angel muttered under his breath to the cat. He felt like an idiot for talking to the dumb little thing, but he wanted to take out his pain on someone. And it was the cat's own fault for not leaving him alone. "Why can't you just leave me alone? I hate you. You're a freaking CAT, for God's sake. I hate your beady little green eyes, and your hair that gets ALL OVER EVERYTHING I OWN, and your stupid swishy tail that keeps tripping me. I hate that I have to refill your damned food bowls two or three times a day, on TOP of having to give you that stinking fish-smelling canned food every morning and every night. I hate that you interrupt my sleep with your meowing or purring, or sticking your damned claws in me." Angel vamped, then snarled right in the cat's face. "THIS is what you're so fucking attached to, cat. If I were the only one here, I'd eat you in a second and be done with it."  
  
Tuxedo blinked her large green eyes very slowly, and her head tilted to the side as she considered her man's new face. He had teeth and eyes like a cat... Like her! He was a cat-man. She knew she loved him for some reason. Standing up on her hind legs slightly, but more just rocking back on her haunches, she brought one small, soft paw up and lightly touched the ridges above the pretty gold eyes her man had now.  
  
Angel blinked at the cat's soft touch. At any other time in his life, all he'd had to do to get rid of any animal he didn't like was to show it his vampire face, and it would run away. But this cat wasn't even intelligent enough to run away from something that wanted to eat it. He snorted and pulled back, glaring at the cat through still gold eyes, then shook his head to rid himself of the vampire visage... And winced badly when the action caused his neck to pull painfully. "Ow. Damnit," he muttered. "Now look what you made me do."  
  
Rubbing his neck with one hand, Angel turned and headed into his bedroom, sighing and rolling his eyes as he heard the cat again follow him. There was NOTHING he could do to get rid of the stupid thing. He crawled onto the bed and stretched out, laying down, and didn't even bother looking at the cat when it climbed up the side of the bed... It was too short to hop that distance... and crawled up to try and cuddle against his side. Immediately, Angel shoved the cat away and moved away from it. "Don't touch me, you brainless thing."  
  
Tuxedo sighed quietly, and laid her head on her paws. But the moment her man was asleep, she slowly got up and walked over, then cuddled against him once again. It was one of the few times she could touch him for any extended period, and so she made use of it every chance she got. But it was getting harder and harder for her to get up onto the bed at night. She'd been getting heavier, and something deep inside her kept telling her to just keep eating. So she ate constantly, listening to her own instincts. Preparing her body for what was to come.  
  
Maybe somewhere, deep inside, she knew what was happening. And how it would undoubtably end. But she was doing all she could with the time she had left. Maybe tomorrow she'd catch a present for her man. A nice mouse, or something equally wonderful for him. The problem would be getting down to the hunting grounds in the basement of the big building. Stairs weren't as easy as they used to be, at her new, heavier weight. But she'd do it.  
  
For her man, she'd do anything...

* * *

(Author's Note: This is a two chapter story. I tried to do it all in one chapter, but it just got too long. So... two chapters. I've had this idea for awhile now... So consider this set right after Smile Time, before the thing with Iliria started, so Fred is still... with us.  
  
Tuxedo is a mixture of my own two cats. Smokey, the small for her age, medium-haired tabby cat, and Harmon, my black and white American Shorthair. Harmon has an interesting story, actually. When I first saw him, I believed he was a she, and I had been feeding 'her' sister, who I'd named Star, because she was entirely black except for a white star shaped mark on her chest. I didn't like this other cat at all. And s/he was afraid of humans, so I kept trying to scare her/him away. But s/he always came back for the food I put out for Star. Eventually, thinking that he was a girl, I named him Harmony. Yep. After you-know-who, for the simple reason that s/he annoyed the hell out of me, yet I couldn't seem to get rid of her.  
  
Then, one day, Star just disappeared. A couple of days later I discovered that she had been hit by a car. Yet Harmon(y) kept coming for food... So I kept feeding him. He grew on me over time, and I eventually discovered that he was a male cat, (oddly enough, someone had had him neutered, then abandoned him, which was why I couldn't tell... He'd been neutered at a very young age, and he really resembled a girl cat... Also, he still has a VERY high pitched voice), so I changed his name to "Harmon", simply dropping the 'y'. He lives inside with us now, and is really quite adorable and sweet. It's hard to imagine that, less than two years ago, I hated him.  
  
But... changes do happen.  
  
Thank you for reading and reviewing, new chapter coming soon. Also, three of my stories could use more reviews, if any of you feel like it. They are The Calm Amid The Storm, A Little Surprise, and The Right Combination.   
  
Oh, and in case anyone cares, the Special Features of Can't Top An Exit Like That has been uploaded... It was pushed to the third page after only three people reviewed it. So... Considering I mentioned 40 people in the "Thank You" section, that's kind of embarrassing. Thank you again. –Darkwolf) 


	2. The Beginning

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Miracle

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Chapter 2: The Vision

* * *

"CAT!"  
  
Angel snarled, sitting up and ignoring the still painful twinge of his ribs. He'd woken up to discover the most disgusting 'gift' yet. Half... That's right, HALF, of a dead rat. On his pillow.  
  
It looked like it had been killed in a rat-trap, actually. Snapped in half as sometimes happens with those powerful springs, so the cat hadn't killed this one... and at least it wasn't accompanied by blood on his sheets this time... The stupid little animal had scavenged it. And worst of all, it was the FRONT half of the rat, so it didn't have a tail for Angel to pick it up by. And he was LONG out of the habit of catching rats for food. His reaction to them now was quite human. He got the screaming willies, complete with goose-bumps and a slight wave of nausea. Especially when there was HALF a RAT on his PILLOW.  
  
"Where are you, you disgusting little freak?!", the vampire snarled, getting up to get away from the half corpse on his bed, and also to KILL that stinking little thing the moment he found it. "I don't care how 'cute' the others think you are. You're well enough to go to that shelter now. And you are ON your WAY, the MOMENT I find you. I'll throw you out the window in the direction of the place..."  
  
He stalked around his bedroom, but, unusually, the cat was nowhere to be seen. He smirked. Fine. He knew how to make it come out. All he had to do was go in the kitchen and turn on the can opener. That always brought it running...  
  
His brow furrowed slightly when the cat failed to come, but then he shrugged. Anger was ebbing away. He had work to do, after all. He could always catch the cat later. It wasn't like it was ever hard to FIND. It always just showed up wherever he was. It had for weeks, now.  
  
He put the food down on the floor anyway, out of habit, and gave one more look around, but the cat didn't show itself. Angel rolled his eyes and headed into his closet to perform the now habitual ritual of shaking the cat hair off his clothes before he got dressed. He checked his shoes carefully, but didn't find any trace of hairballs, so he finished getting ready and headed for his elevator. An absent glance in the kitchen told him that the cat's food was still there... Which, he noted, was odd. But maybe the dumb little thing had FINALLY had enough to eat.  
  
He got in the elevator, most of his mind focused on the day of work ahead. He had a quasi-Summit meeting with several demon heads... Yeah. That's literal. This species was nothing but disembodied heads. Freaky? Yes. But another day at the office for the CEO of Wolfram & Hart, LA chapter. However, a tiny part of his thoughts remained focused on the strangely absent feline. It wasn't in the elevator, either... He gave a mental shrug. Someone probably came up and got it in the middle of the night. It wasn't like the cat didn't have other ways of getting in and out of his room... though he really had no CLUE what they were, but he knew for a fact that his suite did not, and had never had, rodents of any kind. So it had to be going somewhere to get them, and that meant it could leave the suite. Which was fine. He wanted it away from him. The further, the better.  
  
He stepped out of the elevator and into his office, heading for his desk. Automatically, he reached down to move the cat out of the chair... But the small ball of fur wasn't there. And the leather of the chair was colder than it had been since the animal had been staying there. Momentarily, Angel paused. Where was that thing, anyway? Probably off throwing up on something expensive, or shredding his sheets... Oh. He'd forgotten to throw away the rat half on his pillow... Oh well. Maybe the cat would eat it, or whatever it did with the other half.  
  
The day proceeded as normally as any day at Wolfram & Hart, except for the one thing Angel had been taking for granted for the last nearly two months. The cat just wasn't there. He watched the doorway intently, subconsciously, every time it opened, but the black and white streak never shot through the opening. Intelligent green eyes were absent from his desk, and the table behind it. The food in the corner of his office was untouched, and the water bowl was as full as it had been the night before. A small catnip mouse Fred had bought for the cat lay forlornly in the center of the floor, where the small cat had exhausted itself playing with it only a few days earlier.  
  
Slowly, as the day wore on, the subconscious thoughts began to make their way into the front of Angel's mind. He wasn't worried about the cat, per say... It was more like a 'God, what can it possibly be getting into NOW?' feeling. But it was still there. If he only knew where the stupid thing was, he could relax. As it was, he stayed tense all day, turning over and over the possibilities of what that dumb animal could be doing to his belongings for this long...  
  
Where WAS it? What was it DOING? And, most importantly, WHEN would he find out?  
  
Spike was saying something. There were words. Angel snapped out of his reverie... He hadn't even realized his mind had wandered. "What?"  
  
Spike raised an eyebrow. "I asked what the hell you were thinkin' about, mate... You were just starin' over at Tux's food bowl, like it was the most interestin' thing in the world."  
  
Angel blinked. "I was?" He shook his head when Spike nodded, then it occurred to him. Maybe SPIKE knew where that stupid cat had been all day. "Spike... Have you seen it? The cat, today?"  
  
Spike blinked, then shook his head. "Nope... I saw 'er last night, 'fore you headed off to bed. Haven't seen her since." Spike's face hardened a bit. "Did you lock her down HERE again?"  
  
Angel shook his head immediately. "No. I learned my lesson when Fred went off on me... Besides, I remember it's little green eyes watching me before I went to sleep. It was there."  
  
Spike blinked slowly, then muttered, "Hell. The little baby's lost 'round here somewhere..." He got up. "C'mon. You lost her, you're gonna help us find her. First thing is to round up everyone and see if anyone's seen her today."  
  
Angel sighed, but for once he didn't argue. The sooner they found the little demon, the sooner he could relax. He followed Spike out into the main entrance hall of Wolfram & Hart, and around as they asked everyone where the cat was. No one had seen it... And now there was a posse out looking for little Tuxedo.

* * *

"Tux!? Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!", Spike called, wandering around in the basement of the big building. He'd seen the little cat down here hunting mice on more than one occasion. So he figured he should look down here. Though, so far, he'd had no luck.  
  
The same could be said for Fred, who was 'kitty, kitty, kitty'ing her heart out all over the lab. There were plenty of places the small cat could be hiding in there, and she DID sometimes come visit Fred during the day if Angel was locked away in a meeting. However, she had yet to find so much as a hair from Tuxedo.  
  
Wesley, on the other hand, had found hair... A few of them, actually, but that was only because Tuxedo had a thing for sitting on people's papers, and shedding. So any book he left open for very long seemed to collect cat hair. He didn't mind, of course. Tuxedo was far too cute for him to allow a few stray hairs the cat had no control over bother him. Other than that trace evidence, however, the libraries were remarkably clean of cat traces. And no matter how many times he called her name, the cat didn't show herself.  
  
Lorne was wandering around through some of the upstairs offices, just in case the cat had gotten lost looking for Angel and wound up locked in one of there. The demon was whistling 'Greensleeves', since, for some reason, that particular tune seemed to attract the cat. He didn't particularly care for it... Too depressing... But if it would locate Tuxedo, he would whistle until his lips dried out. And, the way things were going, that's what it looked like would happen.  
  
Gunn was in the 'kitchen' area of the building... One of them, anyway. But it was the one where they kept the bags of dry cat food that hadn't been opened yet. He figured that, maybe, the cat had gotten tired of whatever Angel was feeding her, and had gone to find some new food. He'd done that on more than one occasion. But despite opening cabinet after cabinet, and even looking inside the microwave (thinking back on it later, he had no clue why he looked in there), he found nothing that would indicate little Tux had been anywhere near this kitchen. Oh well, he thought. One down... several more to go.  
  
Angel, however, had returned to his suite. If the cat HAD been left in there that morning, she'd probably have eaten her food, right? Well, no, apparently. That was the first thing he checked, and the food bowl was still as full as it had been when he first set it out that morning.  
  
The vampire stood in the kitchen doorway, scratching his head absently, then growled to himself. If that little furball had given him FLEAS now... He shook his head. If he could only FIND the thing, they could get rid of it. He was sure. He'd more than tolerated it... He'd put up with all of it's problems and idiosyncrasies. He'd dealt with puked upon shoes, stolen, ripped and haired shirts, and torn... He froze, staring at the corner of his silk sheets. Or, rather, staring at where the corner SHOULD have been. It had been ripped off by little claws and fangs. Silk. RIPPED. That little demon. Forget the shelter, he was going to kill it the moment he found it.  
  
"CAT!", he shouted. Sometimes his shouting seemed to bring it out of hiding. Like it thought he was happy, or something equally idiotic. "Get out here, cat!"  
  
He stood there for a moment, then growled and walked over to the bed, making a face at the disgusting remnants of the rat half on his pillow. He put one hand on the ripped corner of the sheet, then reached to grab the rat with his other hand. But the moment his hand made contact with the cold, stiff body, he felt a shock of something like electricity shoot through him. And suddenly... Suddenly everything was different...  
  
**_FLASH!_** **__**

* * *

  
  
_2:00 am, the previous night..._

* * *

Tuxedo dragged herself, sides heaving, up through the tiny hole in the wall under Angel's sink that she had been using as a way of getting around the building at night. Inside the walls, the network of wood and pipes were like a superhighway to a cat her size. And it was usually easy enough to get in and out of the area, but tonight, after the event she'd been waiting for so long, every movement was filled with pain. And it didn't help that she was dragging a rat nearly half her size, dangling from her mouth at the same time.  
  
Determination, no matter how small the creature it came from, could always accomplish amazing things. But the little cat knew her time was growing short. She could feel the pain inside, and some deep, instinctive part of her knew what was happening. She was shutting down, one piece at a time. The effort she had expended earlier had almost done her in... But she had one last thing to do before she would let herself rest.  
  
She turned around and reached back into the hole, seizing the tail of the other half of her rat in her mouth, and dragging it up through the hole as well. She turned around slowly, her breathing ragged, but a soft, weak purr rumbled from her throat as she dragged the back half of the rat over to a small nest she'd created. Lowering her head, she placed the half rat lovingly down on the blanket, and placed several soft, loving licks to the other tiny, furry form that rested in that nest made of a silk shirt, and part of a sheet.  
  
When she raised her head, the front half of the rat was in her tiny jaws, and she felt her vision swim as a wave of weakness washed over her. But she wasn't finished yet.  
  
Carefully, using her weight to push the door open that would let her out into her man's bathroom, she half walked, half staggered out onto the carpet, her green eyes fixed on the sleeping form in the bed. Carefully, she made her way over, determined teeth still clutching at the front half of the rat's corpse.  
  
A part of her was embarrassed that this, her final gift, was not a kill of her own. But she'd tried for over an hour, and had been unable to make a kill. The pain inside was too great, and it slowed her down. So she'd had to resort to scavenging, the bane of all predators... But perhaps her legacy would make up for this last, paltry offering, even though she'd embued that rat with every ounce of love she had for her man... She hoped... and would've prayed, if she'd understood the concept... that he would somehow understand what it meant for her to do this...  
  
Carefully, she climbed up onto the bed, her body screaming in protest at the exertion. But she HAD to make it... She just had to. Finally, she reached her goal, and slowly laid the token of her love on the pillow near her man's slumbering head. Soft green eyes watched the sleeping vampire, taking in the look of death... but she could feel life from him. She'd always been able to feel life from him.  
  
Lowering her head, slowly, carefully, she pressed her soft, furry forehead against his cheek, her purring very soft and shaky. She didn't have much time left.  
  
She wished her man had been awake. Wished he could've touched her one last time... But her touch would have to be enough for her. She knew he loved her. And she knew he would love what she'd left him. Her man who gave her food, and water... Who talked to her, and picked her up... Who'd saved her from slowly starving to death and ending two lives rather than the one that had to be given... He was her guardian angel.  
  
A soft paw touched the sleeping vampire's cheek, after the head withdrew, but Angel was in too deep of a sleep to wake up. His wounds were healing, and that put him into a deeper sleep than usual. So it wasn't surprising that, when a soft, gentle tongue caressed his temple, he didn't stir.  
  
Tuxedo slowly backed away, and started to lay down... But then she remembered something. Her nest wasn't complete! It needed... It needed... Her eyes found the corner of the sheet she was laying on, and her teeth and claws quickly did the rest. Yes. It smelled of her man, her angel, just as the shirt she had chosen had. Carrying the scrap in her mouth, she slowly hopped down from the bed, almost crying out in pain on the landing, as something already broken deep inside her twisted. But she wasn't ready yet. It wouldn't come yet.  
  
She carried the scrap back into the bathroom, and into the cupboard under the sink, carefully tucking it around inside the shirt, so the scent would be strong. Then she turned and pushed her way out of the door again, and slowly staggered back toward the bed. Now she could rest... As soon as she got up on the bed...  
  
Her vision was dimming... No. NO! Not now... She had to get back on the bed. With the last of her strength, she pushed herself into a run, fading eyes locked on the bed. Her muscles strained, and her broken body pushed with all it's might and determination. A weak leap... and it wasn't enough.  
  
She wouldn't get another chance.  
  
Tuxedo hit the hard wood floor with enough momentum to send her sliding just under the bed. Out of sight. She tried to let out a meow, a last plaintive goodbye... But her body was too weak, and her lungs couldn't draw enough air to make the sound. She was tired... so very tired... She'd done all she needed to do. It was up to her angel, now.  
  
Sighing, and slowly letting go, Tuxedo closed her eyes for the last time. And on her last breath, the scent of her man... her guardian angel, drifted comfortingly into her nose. Her last thought, could it have been put into words, would have been shockingly simple... Yet so very meaningful.  
  
_"I love you, my angel... Thank you."_

**_FLASH!_**

* * *

Angel choked, drawing back from the rat and the sheet as if he'd been gut punched. His eyes were wide, and his chest heaved with unnecessary breaths as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened. For a few seconds... A few seconds that had felt like an hour or more... He hadn't been... here. Well, he had, but he'd been... Watching something. Feeling something... Something he knew, with a feeling of certainty that twisted his stomach and brought unwanted tears to his eyes, something he knew had happened, less than twenty-four hours earlier.  
  
Very slowly, he dropped to his knees, then lowered his head to the ground so he could see under the bed. He already knew what he would find... Somehow, he had been told. But when he saw the crumpled black and white form just under his bed, the sudden pain shocked even him.  
  
Slowly, almost as if he was moving in a dream, he slipped his hands under the bed and slowly scooped out the still, cold form of the small cat. It's eyes were closed. But, then again, he knew they would be. Somehow, he'd seen it...Her. He'd seen her close them.  
  
The body seemed so small... And when his fingers gently probed the fur, he felt what he already knew was there. The tiny pelvis was fractured, and another tiny, unmoving lump rested in the lower stomach. An unborn kitten. Tuxedo had been pregnant, but she was too small to give birth without a C- Section at a vet. THAT was why she'd been eating so much... Why she'd been getting bigger, and slowing down. If he'd only known... If any of them had only known... One trip to the vet would've been all it would've taken, and the cat might have been saved... But Angel was the only one who'd been AROUND the cat enough to have realized what was going on... And he hadn't been paying attention.  
  
She loved him? She'd _loved_ HIM? How? Why? All he'd done was hate her... God. He'd hated her from the moment he saw her.  
  
And she'd loved him from the moment she saw him.  
  
He cradled the tiny body in his arms, much more lovingly than he'd ever held the cat while she was alive. Pangs of guilt, and, yes, even grief, rocked him as he stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for his office, shifting the tiny body into one arm as he did so. His eyes closed tightly, then snapped open again when a few scenes from the 'movie' that had played in his head and allowed him to find Tuxedo's body flashed through his mind again. The rat... Not a disgusting piece of dead rodent anymore, but a loving token... All the cat could find to express her gratitude... Her love. Her last attempt to get up onto the bed... She'd known she was dying, but wanted to be with him, even then. Angel found himself choking back tears as he held the little body even closer to his chest.  
  
The elevator doors opened and the vampire took a deep breath, forcing the images and emotions back to a place where they wouldn't show on the outside. He reached his desk, and pressed the button for the whole building intercom. His little group was all that was in the building by now, besides the security personnel, so when he said quietly into the intercom, "I found Tuxedo. Everyone... Everyone to my office, please.", only those who knew him... Who knew that tone in his voice, came.

* * *

And, in a very short time, the whole group was assembled in Angel's office... And everyone except the oldest vampire had tears in their eyes. Tuxedo's body was passed around carefully, lovingly, so everyone would get a chance to say goodbye, and Fred held it last. Spike's hand rested on her shoulder as she wrapped the little cat's body in the same shirt she'd used on that first day to hold the cat. Fred sniffled, then sobbed and turned against Spike, who looked quite a bit choked up himself, tears glistening in his blue eyes. Angel quietly told the story of going back to his suite, thinking he might have locked the cat in there that morning. But he left out the part about the vision, or whatever it had been, that had finally lead him to find Tuxedo's body. Instead saying that he'd been looking under almost all the furniture, and finally under the bed... And that's where the cat was. He mentioned that, from the way she had been laying, he figured she'd tried to make a jump to the bed, and just hadn't made it.  
  
Leaving out the vision was partially personal, and partially professional, on his part. The professional part was that he was certain even his closest friends, his family, would think him insane if he told them he had seen the memories of a dead cat while touching a dead RAT. HALF a dead rat that had been a gift from said dead cat... Yeah. Definitely crazy material. But the personal reason was more important. That vision had been something just for him. Like the rat. A gift from someone who loved him more than almost anyone he'd ever known.  
  
As the others filtered out a few moments later, Fred mumbling through tears that they needed to find a nice place to bury Tuxedo, and Wesley suggesting perhaps they should have her cremated, Spike stopped at the door and turned back to Angel. Angel, for his part, was sitting stone-faced behind his desk.  
  
"You insensitive clod," Spike said quietly, after considering Angel's seemingly unaffected demeanor. "That little cat loved you, you know. Damned if I know why, but you were her whole bloody world." He snorted, then growled. "Then again, you're probably glad she's gone, aren't you? You always hated her... The only one who couldn't see how much she loved you. Yes, she was a cat, Angel..." Spike's voice softened. "But sometimes animals can be the best kind of people." He started for the door again, then looked back, as if he couldn't believe Angel was still unaffected. "She _loved_ you," he whispered one last time, almost too quiet to hear, then left, shutting the door behind himself.  
  
The moment Angel was sure his Childe was out of hearing range, the stone- faced look dropped with a startling suddenty. He let out a quiet choked sound and rested his head in his hands. His shoulders shook, and small muffled sobs escaped him. Along with two, barely whispered words.  
  
_"I know..."_

* * *

Angel didn't know how he made it back to his suite later that night. His world was a broken mess of tears and blurred vision. Vision that traded itself, every time he closed his eyes, for pieces of the last moments of Tuxedo's life. Certain parts played over and over in his mind. Moving almost like a zombie, he picked up his half of the rat, and carefully slipped it into a ziploc bag. Yes, it was disgusting, and he would be forced to throw it away eventually, but he just couldn't make himself do it. Not tonight.  
  
He changed the sheets in an almost automatic series of movements, not thinking of what he was doing. And headed into the bathroom to change clothes a bit later with the same jerky, almost pained motions.  
  
He was standing in front of the blank wall that would hold a mirror in a normal bathroom, when he heard it.  
  
A soft, extremely tiny mew.  
  
He shook his head, rubbing his tear-reddened eyes in an attempt to get his vision to clear. He was hearing things. He wanted another chance so badly... Wanted to let Tuxedo know how much he cared about her... Because he had cared about her, he realized. He'd been so out of practice with that kind of love... The kind that is instant and total, that he'd hidden it behind his centuries old hatred of cats. Somehow, part of him knew, Tuxedo had seen past all that. Seen past his violent, blustering exterior, even when HE couldn't see past it, and had loved him... Because she'd known he loved her.  
  
That didn't stop him from wanting to show her, though. To pick her up and hold her, to pet her the way everyone else had. To drop a soft kiss between her little black ears and hear her loud, truck engine purr. A purr that always sounded much too loud for her little tiny body, but was a nice sound. After all, even vampires purr.  
  
Angel blinked. He'd heard it again. And this time he was certain he wasn't imagining it. He closed his eyes... and another flash from the vision crossed his mind's eye.  
  
Under the sink. A nest made of one of his shirts... and the missing piece of sheet. The other half of the rat... And... And...  
  
Could it be?  
  
He dropped to one knee and slowly opened the cabinet beneath the sink, and his eyes widened when he saw the nest, just as it had been in the vision.  
  
Complete with the single, tiny, black and white kitten curled up helplessly atop the mound. It's newborn eyes were still closed tight, and it wriggled slowly, letting out that tiny peep of a mew again. Angel stopped breathing as he slowly reached one hand into the cabinet and lifted out the tiny kitten. He felt fresh tears come to his eyes, as he pulled out the scrap of sheet as well, and wrapped the baby in it. Just as her mother had intended for him to do.  
  
This time, his love wasn't hidden. Tuxedo's final gift would live out her days in luxury, being spoiled by everyone... But Angel especially. And as he cradled the kitten close, standing up and turning to head back to the elevator to get the others.... They would, after all, need a LOT of things to care for a newborn kitten without a mother... Angel watched the tiny baby curl up in his hands. She would need a name, he thought to himself. They could call her Tux, after her mother... But... No. Tuxedo had been a one of a kind cat. Her daughter would not be a copy... After all, the fact that she'd survived this long was a...  
  
Angel stopped just outside the open elevator doors, and a slow smile spread across his face as he gazed down at the kitten in his hands. That was perfect. Her mother would've loved it. So would everyone else, he knew.  
  
The tiny kitten's name would be what she was. The kitten's name would be...

_Miracle._

* * *

The End

* * *

(Author's Note: Okay. I promised two chapters... And yes, I know. Very, very sad. I suppose I should explain where this part came from as well... So I will.  
  
One night, during a thunderstorm nearly ten years ago, I found an old toy poodle that some kids were throwing rocks at. I rescued the poodle, and brought her to live with us. Her name would become Baby. She lived with us for three years, until she was actually over twenty years old, according to the vet... So you could say we became a kind of retirement home for her. But her body was slowly shutting down. When she stopped eating, we knew it was time.  
  
We took her to the vet on a Saturday morning. A bright sunny day, ironically enough. It would've been beautiful, if I hadn't known that this was the last time I'd see my dog. But still, I had doubts. Where there's life, there's hope, right? She was still alive. What right did we have to take that away from her? Were we doing the right thing? If she could've, would she have understood?  
  
We stood next to her as the vet put the needle into her arm. A painless way to go, they said. And Baby's age-clouded eyes regarded me unwaveringly the whole time, as I petted her head and told her how much I loved her, and that it would be okay. As the medicine began to do it's work... slowly easing her to sleep before it would stop her heart and breathing... She suddenly locked eyes with me. And here's the part that sounds insane. In my head, clear as if it had been spoken, and in a voice I had never heard before, I heard the words _"Thank you..."._ Then Baby's head slowly laid down upon her paws on the steel table. A moment later, the vet told us it was over.  
  
Yes, I cried that day. And have many times since then. She was my first dog, and I still love her. But I don't feel that indecision anymore. That worry over whether or not we did the right thing. Because I know we did. And I know she knew. She knew more than any of us ever gave her credit for.  
  
So I'd like to dedicate this story to all my pets that have gone on before, but especially to Baby. Rest in peace, old girl, and I'll see you some day, on the other side of that Rainbow Bridge. –Darkwolf) 

* * *

* * *

(Author's Note 2: I don't usually do this, but I feel the need to, for everyone who's lost a beloved pet, if I might recommend the site 'petloss.com'. It's a wonderful place to share stories and pictures of pets who have gone ahead of us. And I'd also like to add this. The author of this poem is unknown, but it speaks so clearly that I cannot resist including it. So this is for everyone who's ever loved and lost a pet. May you one day see them again.  
  
"Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor.

Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance.

His bright eyes are intent.

His eager body quivers.

Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion.

The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together, never to part again.

_-Author Unknown_"   
  
Thank you again for sharing this journey with me, and I hope you don't think me some sentimental old fool for writing this. Thank you for reading and reviewing. –Darkwolf)


End file.
